A few of you saw a post I made back in April about a leaky hydraulic valve on a 7120 magnum. A number of you responded with tips on it and we were going to dive into it when we had a chance. Well those that read the post know that disaster struck before we got to work on it.

For those of you that don't know the story. My Dad, brother and I were loading up a junk haybine onto a trailer to go to the scrap yard for a neighbor with our backhoe. I was guiding it when the place that chained it to broke and dropped the left side of the haybine. With the drawbar sticking out there the haybine kicked left as it dropped. With the kick left the end of the drawbar of the haybine ended up connecting perfectly with the top of my left foot breaking 2 metacarsal bones in the process. I did luck out and I didn't need surgery to fix them but I came dangerously close to needing it.

I ended up in a cast for 6 weeks. No weight for 3 weeks. Partial weight for 3 weeks. I got extremely tired of being on crutches and not being able to carry anything of any size. I obviously missed out on planting this spring because there was no way I could climb up into a tractor with my bum foot. The best I could do was drive the pickup trucks around and move them from place to place. Couldn't even load the trucks with supplies.

Today was the big day. I got my cast off. I am cleared to climb into tractors, semi truck, as long as I'm careful. I am in a walking boot for another 3 weeks because they want everything truly healed before I go back to wearing my cowboy boot on that foot. I was told I could take the boot off in the house as long as the floor is level. I got back in time to bale some hay. Normally my brother and I unload the wagons while Dad bales. Unloading hayis definitely out of the question for me right now but I could run the bailer. I missed this.

I didn't get a chance to post my progress until today. After 3 weeks of being in a walking cast I was cleared for full duty this past Thursday. I can wear normal shoes and boots now that actually match . I do have a follow up appointment in September just to see how I'm doing. I still have some expected stiffness in the foot which the doctor says is normal and may take some time to clear up so I still have a slight limp to me when I walk but not bad.

The first picture is of me at the doctors office checking out wearing one of my goodpairs of cowboy boots that she posted on my Facebook page.

The second one is of my left foot in my work boots before getting on the 786 to hook it up to the brush hog. That is the same boot that was on my foot when that junk haybine fell on it. There wasn't a scratch or mark on the boot to tell that it was on my foot during the accident. Obviously my foot took the brunt of it.

MTO. No Ivery never been called Chester. I've been called hop a long, the gimp, gimmpy, the cripple, and my personal favorite Stumpy, named after the lame walking deputy on the John Wayne western Rio Bravo

Thank you all for the well wishes.

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I will humbly suggest you get rid of those cowboy boots and get a pair similar but with the steel toecaps. The reason I say that is as follows. The electric company I used to work for insisted as a condition of employment that you wear the safety footwear that is dielectric resistant and also has the steel toes. And they provided a full subsidy on them so there was no excuse not to wear them. I also wore a pair of them for working around the farm. One day 15 -20 years ago while not watching what I was doing I dropped the tongue of the stone picker on one foot. The picker was in the up position with several hundred pounds of tongue load. It hit my toes area but while I felt a little pain it never hurt my foot. I had it X rayed and all was OK. There was no question that the safety boots saved my toes from serious harm.

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Glad to hear you're better. Fractured my left heel,guess it's been 22 or 23 years ago now. Wore a cast for 8 weeks from middle of May to July. Really sucked back then is I didn't even have a vehicle that wasn't a standard and was told by no means to try and drive because I would be liable in an accident with a cast on my Clutch foot.

George one thing I mentioned in a earlier post was that my toes actually came through it without a scratch. I broke the bones in my foot right in front of my ankle. The tounge when it dropped kicked left and left a scrape down my leg as it dropped. Steel toe wouldn't have protected as the steel toe I've worn before don't go that far back in the boot.

Glad your back at it and nice baling rig! UNloaded and mowed a lot of hay bales from one of those new hollands! ours was ran with an M and my grandpa ran my uncles with a 706 kraut. Not nearly comfy as your baling tractor!

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George one thing I mentioned in a earlier post was that my toes actually came through it without a scratch. I broke the bones in my foot right in front of my ankle. The tounge when it dropped kicked left and left a scrape down my leg as it dropped. Steel toe wouldn't have protected as the steel toe I've worn before don't go that far back in the boot.

That is correct. I guess I was luckier than you as the tongue on my stone picker dropped on my toe area. Anyway, I am glad you successfully recovered and are off the disabled list. Good luck in the future.